Adventure Trailer Covered Wagon

[Reubal]

October 30-31; Days 11-12.

Saturday morning I got the wheels back on, and this was the first that I've seen how my wheels/tires fit into my wheelwells. Or more accurately, as I see now, LACK of wheelwells.



I figured I'd be sticking out about an inch, and had planned a minimal "cover" for the wheels, but I now see that I have about 3", and will make something a little more substantial. I haven't planned it out yet, but something that follows the angles and attaches to the the outside of the aluminum framing, as opposed to the wood.

Having it back on it's wheels after a month reminded me of how much easier it is to work on when it is higher, so I immediately lifted it back up onto the jacks to put the tailgate on. All I had to hold the tailgate while attaching it was a little rolling cart, so I leveled the trailer to the cart and got to work with the piano hinges. I was worried about alignment, and if either of the hinges were off a little I'd have major problems, but I managed to do it correctly, so that's good. I've gone through 3 riveters... the 3rd was a brand new replacement riveter that broke on the first rivet. So that was nice. I actually have 6 rivets left, TOTAL, and don't want to have to buy another riveter just for that.... but they won't rivet themselves, so I guess I have to.




I'm a little bummed by the back posts of the box. The tailgate looks like it wasn't made correctly, but the problem is actually that there is no top rail at the back of the box to hold the top of the two back posts inwards to correct dimension, so they tilt out slightly. I've debated cranking them inwards and adjusting the tailgate latches to hold them in place, but I'm afraid to do more damage than good. They aren't TERRIBLE right now, just annoying, and I'd hate to break things just to avoid annoying. The latches work great.

The above photo shows the raw aluminum edge, and I have plastic caps for them all for a more finished look.



And then I put weather gasket on the sides of the trailer, both to help keep water out, but also to give the posts something to compress against when latching.



I need to figure out a solution for the bottom edge of the tailgate. I'm not looking for perfect water-tightness, just to keep splashing water out. I don't know yet whether I will be doing ANY wet weather camping with this, but I want to keep road-wetness out.

Fir the first time since receiving it, I pulled the tent out of the box to fit it so I can place and mount my post mounts. I put it in and immediately realized that if I proceeded any further that the sharp corners of the trailer would instantly rips holes in the tent...



... so I stopped everything to go get some rubber furniture baby-safety corners for the 4 corners.



I'll be using these stainless steel bimini mounts, but need to erect the tent a couple times for exact placement. I will want the tent as far FORWARD as possible in order for my AC to stick in the front window, but I don't know how that will affect the back of the tent at the tailgate. I should have an answer this evening.



And as I was cleaning (I use that term loosely) and closing up, Kinney decided she is ready to go camping and jumped up in the back. LET'S GO!

[Reubal]

Two things I'd love the group's input on:

Wheelwells and interior.

I want to keep the wheelwells as easy and minimal as possible. What would you do?

Also, what would you do with the interior? Much of the past 1.5 years I was meticulously designing and laying out my ideal interior for a cargo conversion, and then a teardrop. So I know what I WANT in an interior, and the two key things are a BED and SEATING. The plan on the cargo and teardrop was to be 6ft interior width so I had room to sleep crosswise, and half the bed would lift up and be the back of a sofa when I want to sit about. But the box on this trailer is only 5'9" wide, and so I much sleep long-ways. This limits my sofa/bed convertability. Right now I have a FULL size mattress (I think it's just 6" of foam, but I haven't opened/decompressed it, so I don't know if there is any structure inside.) which is 54x75. I had planned to make a platform like in the original tent trailer that I have based this on, but that leaves no room for convertability.

Also, I will have my 2100wH solar battery inside to power stuff - the plugs/inputs and shore power inputs will be through the front wall on the passenger side.

For now I'll be able to go camping just putting the mattress down on the floor, but I want to start immediately on the interior when the trailer is finished.

So, if this was your camping rig, what would YOU want on the interior?

Thanks!

[Reubal]

Long time no post, but nonstop work.

I got the tent up and situated.



Broke 5 screws trying to mount the bimini mounts, then remembered that I wanted to rivnut them on anyway so I can remove the mounts to use the trailer for utility purposes. So I rivnutted.



Made an extended mount for my license plate light.



And have my backup camera mounted. I learned on my first trip that the antenna signal does not reach all the way into my car, so as of 11/17 I am about to received a more powerful and repositioned antenna.



I started on my fenders. I learned just how brittle aluminum can get when you heat bend it.



I think they turned out pretty great. Just please don't stand on them.




I got a Jeep tailgate table/shelf and adapted it to the side of the trailer for cooking...



But then learned that the tent pulls down OVER the shelf, so I will have to figure out a solution.



And then on my first trip I learned that the table/shelf is not deep enough to hold my opened Coleman stove, so it will be used for something else, I guess.

Here I have the trailer pulled out and putting the final touches on to prepare for my first trip. Spare mounted to the side of the box. All of the aluminum strips you see around the box were added to give additional attachment strength and structure for anything I want to add to the sides.



My vacuum packed foam mattress decompressing inside. I still need to figure out my interior.



The cell booster antenna attached to the side.



When I get my solar rack built I will figure out a more permanent solution for this.

Also, I have a tongue box, but I won't secure that in place until I make the A/C stand mount that will go in between the tongue box and the trailer box. That 12' spread framing on the front of the trailer box is to mount the A/C mount to.

[Reubal]

My big lessons as far as the over construction goes, is that I built just a little too long and my tailgate is too wide.

I made my tailgate to be the full width of the trailer:



...and the tent would fit much better if the tailgate was constructed to be WITHIN the back of the box as opposed to outside of it. As a result the portion of the tent that covers and then extends down around the tailgate isn't quite long enough to comfortably cover it. I will address that and attach some sort of extended skirt to it in the future.It WORKS, but it's just not quite right, as it is.

Other than that, I'm pretty pleased with it all.

I'm still trying to figure out a bed platform. I have a trip coming up Thankgsgiving weekend, and I hope to have something built by then, but I'm not in a rush. I want it to be removeable, and I was it to be as "nice" as the rest of the trailer. So I'm leaning towards 1" aluminum rivet construction.But I also want it to fold so I can strap heavy cargo directly over the axle. (about 70lb ice chest, 60lb Bluetti "solar generator", and 40lb gas generator.

It's possible that I just go buy some wood to prototype with and see how it works on the Thanksgiving trip.

[Reubal]

Kinney and I headed out on our first trial trip. We spent a single night at a cool place in Hemet CA called the Ecoshire.

It took longer than I expected, the morning we left, to figure out the strapping for the trailer cover tarp. Also, when I finally went to get hitched up, I discovered that I wired by wiring harness ONE INCH TOO SHORT to connect to the car. I could literally touch the two connectors together, but couldn't push them into each other. Luckily I had purchased a second wiring harness - in case I needed it - and never actually thought I would need it, especially not right as I was leaving on my first trip. So I made a little 6" extension adapter and will figure out what I want to do about it all later. I'm pretty bummed about that - I thought I left plenty of room for the harness.

I loaded all my cargo into my SUV as I haven't put cargo mounts on the floor in the trailer yet. That left the trailer fairly light and bouncy. It pulled well, though, and everything stayed in place the entire drive. Nothing fell apart. Everything is still secure, rigid, and intact.

I actually averaged better gas mileage over the trip than I do in day to day life without a trailer. Driving to work and around L.A. every day I have consistently averaged 16MPG both over the life of the car as well as tank-to-tank. It's a 3.5L AWD FOrd Edge, and it does far worse with gas than I imagined before I bought it. I averaged 21.1MPG over the 260 miles of this trip, though, so that's liveable. I anticipated going from 16MPG to 13MPG, so 20MPG actually makes me quite happy.

We arrived at the campground at about 2:30pm and I set about figuring everything out.

This was our little plot. Nice little area removed from anyone else.



And Kinney immediately started exploring.




I will eventually have a telescoping solar panel array over the trailer tent. That will both provide power and prove shade to the tent. Without that built, though, I have a large canopy awning to put out over the trailer tent to shade the trailer tent from direct sun and air flow over/around the tent. While it was 85F thise past saturday when we got to the campground, I didn;t really need this canopy for a single night trip, but I wanted to practice setting it up as I have never taken it out of the bag before.




Having to figure everything out AND wrestly with the pole and lines all by myself, it took almost 2 hours to get the canopy up, and that was just technically up - not how I would actually need it on a trip. But I took photos and notes and have ideas on how to do it better next time.

It took me about 5 minutes to remove and fold the trailer cover tarp, as well as prep the trailer tent.




And then it took me 2 more minutes to pop it open and secure it.



One thing that I learned was that the bimini mounts that I used as a replacement for the factory pole mounts add over 2" to the lift/height of the tent over the trailer. This actually makes a difference and I am debating if I want to saw off 2" from each end of each pole to lower it back down. I am still weighing the pros/cons and will likely not make a decision until after my longer Thanksgiving trip.

Here is my stove on the side shelf. It looks like it fits great, but once the lid is opened, it literally pushes the stove about halfway off the shelf.



Here is the Bluetti AC200MAX. Once I get the bed platform built, this will find it's home at the front of the trailer.



Kinney exploring up above our campsite.



Kinney ready for bed.



And there is actually an absolute ton of room inside this tent. Once I get the platform designed and built, there will be even more room as I will have storage underneath as well as space to the side of the bed. Right now there is not really any space on either side of the bed with it sitting in between the wheelwells inside of lifted up above and off to one side.



And here is a look at the whole rig, stopped at the gas station on the way home.



And the main thing I learned on this whole trip? People LOVE to cut in front of vehicles with trailers and then slam on their brakes.

Also, both Kinney and I had a great time and I'm looking forward to a longer Thanksgiving trip in Joshua Tree.

[celadon]

I love the nouveau covered wagon thing you have going on here. Looks like a nice base camp. And your pup is beautiful.

[Nanny54]

That's really great! Keep going

[Reubal]

I had one week and weekend in between my test camp and my longer camping trip. I really wanted to get a bed platform made, so that is what I tackled. I also wanted to get my shore power and other power penetrations made, so I did that as well. I won't need the shore power anytime soon, nor the exterior plug for the A/C, but I just wanted to get them in.

Here are two of the three holes:



I forgot to take a photo of the plugs installed. So that isn't very helpful. There is a third over on the "kitchen side at the rear of the trailer so I can plug something in outside over there... like maybe a coffee maker or... something else. I don't know. Maybe I'll never need or use it.

I took everything out and made a lumber run. The box works really well as a utility trailer. I didn't bother taking the bimini mounts off the side rails, but I'm glad to have that option.



And here is the 75% finished bed platform. It's a slider, and offers a 26" deep "sofa" base when closed up, and a 48" wide bed when extended. It's 12" high with 10.5" of vertical clearance underneath for my storage bins. It's mounted to the box on two side with french cleats, and for now it has been screwed to the box with general construction screws. That was a quick solution to just get it in and ready in the short time frame. Where those screws are, I will add bolts to be able to easily unbolt/remove the platform. The 1.5" tall french cleat pieces will remain attached on the inside of the box.



Everything will need to be stained and finished.

And now the bad news. My wonderfully hyperactive dog tore up her leg, and she has a ton of meds and a maintenance regimen that would make it impossible to take care of in the desert on a 5 day camping trip, so I had to cancel the trip. I'm VERY bummed. So much work and THIS TRIP is what I was working so hard every day to be ready for. So I'm not sure if I'm going to even make it out at all before Spring. Major bummer.

But all the major work is done and I'm no longer in any rush to do anything. I guess that's nice, but I would rather not be in a major rush to finish anything because I had just gotten back from a trip, not because it's all been cancelled. If I had made a thick insulated foamie like I intended a year ago then I wouldn't be concerned about 30F desert nights. Oh well.

I imagine this will be all from me for a while.

[Staryder61]

It' been a while since I've been back to this forum,
And just read through your Covered Wagon build, great work
Your tent version can be used and adapted for many scenarios,

[Jbyers]

Great write up and I hope your pup is doing better. Dogs sure make life so much better!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[amorrison96]

[quote="Reubal"]October 3; DAY FOUR. Widening the floor.

And with the floor extension installed I could now measure my two floor halves. Starting with the front, I marked and cut the floor and test fit it. Took it back off and and started my waterproofing with The Mix. I did 75/25 on each side, then 50/50 on each side, and then a 25/75 on the bottom only. The underside will eventually get Henry's on it (that will be today), so I'm good with the 3 coats of The Mix.

Quick question regarding "The Mix": is the 1st coat 75% thinner & 25% epoxy?

[Reubal]

Quick question regarding "The Mix": is the 1st coat 75% thinner & 25% epoxy?

To be clear, I used polyurethane, not epoxy.

Coat 1: 75/25 thinner/poly;
Coat 2: 50/50;
Coat 3: 25/75.

I only did 3 coats for the floor because I was also planning on the additional waterproofing underneath. The sides of the box, however, are directly in contact with the weather, so I did 5 coats for that wood. Two coats at 75/25, one at 50/50, one at 25/75, and a final coat at 100% poly.

I have a worktable outside that I made just before starting the trailer. It is 2 sheets of 1/2" OSB glued together, and for that I did two coats at 75/25, and a third at 50/50, and it's been outside for 6 months and holding up great through some fairly heavy rains. I don't expect it to last forever, but I'm also kinda using it as a weather test to see how it does. OSB really soaks up water, yet it is holding up great.